In the past, fiber optic attenuators have been in use, but such devices are usually precision laboratory quality devices and are thus relatively large and expensive. Therefore, there is a need for an attentuator in which the optical attenuator is relatively small in size, inexpensive, and an optical attenuator in which attenuator variations of a few decibles are not critical.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an optical attenuator which is small in size and relatively inexpensive.
Another object of this invention is to provide an optical attenuator in which attenuator variations of a few decibles are allowable and are not critical to the system in which the optical attenuator is to be used.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an optical attenuator for a system in which precision attenuation is not required.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be obvious to those skilled in this art.